Oral History Collection

We have been collecting recordings of people’s memories since the mid-1980s and now hold over 1,700 interviews on life in Portsmouth, and about D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. These recordings have not only been made by the service itself, often by volunteers or in partnerships with local groups such as Eastney Community Association, the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Trust and the University of Portsmouth, but we also store recordings created by others in the city and make them accessible to the public. This group includes the oral history collection of Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust, over 425 recordings about working life in the dockyard.